4 Tips to Improve your Facebook Live Videos

You’ve been going Live on Facebook – hooray!! That moves you straight to the top of business owners and marketers since most people and Pages still haven’t even attempted to harness the goodness of Facebook live video.

Now that you’ve worked through the planning and content strategies for your videos, the nerves to record live videos, and the tech and process of going Live, let’s work on fine-tuning your live broadcasts. Here are 4 tips to improve your Facebook Live Videos.

4 Tips to Improve your Facebook Live Videos

Begin speaking as soon as you know you are live The first few moments of a Facebook Live can be a bit awkward because you as the person on video are waiting for a visual indication on your screen that you are live. But once you have that and you are ready to go, GO! It doesn’t matter if you have viewers yet; no one wants to watch (nor will they stop their scroll to watch) you wasting time, waiting for more people to join live. Facebook considers a video “view” a mere 3 seconds. Do you know what happens to take 3 seconds? The time it takes a user to scan the section of their Facebook News Feed that fits on their device’s screen before scrolling again. Said another way…if you don’t immediately catch their attention before that thumb moves down to scroll up, your live video won’t be viewed.

Don’t begin your Facebook Live stream telling everyone who you are Instead, start with a pain point, pose a question or two, or explain what you will be helping people with during your Facebook Live video. Because you want to get a viewer hooked immediately, you can’t give up those critical first moments saying your name, the name of your business, and what you sell. You are better off introducing yourself and how you work with clients or customers after you have caught their attention with a pain point or the topic of the video.

Give more thought to your lighting, sound, and location of your shoot With any type of live broadcast, there’s always a chance that something will go haywire…the WiFi drops, your tech acts up, etc. However, the brightness and clarity of your Facebook Live video, the crispness of your audio, and what’s going on in the background of your video can and does impact how long (and if) someone stops to watch your video. It’s amazing what opening blinds, turning on lights, and moving to a different part of your office, business or home can do for the viewing experience. Also consider adding an external mic or supplemental lighting (or both) to your set. You can get good quality sound and lighting products without spending a lot of money.

Optimize your video after it’s posted Your Facebook Live video will live on in the News Feed for a while after you record it (or at least much longer than a typical Facebook post), and it will reside in the Videos section of your Profile or Video Library on your Page forever after. Once your (previously) Live video has posted to your Page or Profile, click to edit it so you can customize the video thumbnail, add a video title, add video tags (so your video can surface in other Facebook video search results), and add captions. Here’s a fun Facebook video fact for you: Over 80% of Facebook users view videos with the sound OFF. That’s why adding captions to your Facebook videos is so important.

Bonus Tip #1: Want to generate more interaction on your live videos? Ask people to do what it is that you want! I know it sounds obvious, but most people don’t ask (or forget to work it in to their broadcasts). You can ask people to leave questions for you in the comments, pose a question and ask them to comment with their answer, or even leave a comment to find out more about something you specifically mention in your Live stream.

Bonus Tip #2: Once someone leaves a comment on any Facebook Page post of yours, you have the ability to click to message them, so use this tactic strategically to start a conversation with those people who watch your Facebook Lives!

With every new Facebook Live video recorded, you’ll learn a little more about how to make your videos more effective in achieving the goals you have for them.

Liz is a marketer, social media & online marketing consultant, speaker and mom. Originally from Chicago and currently living in the land of Dixie, she relishes in the flavor of fried pickles and BBQ, but longs for deep dish and a proper Chicago dog.